Question

Part A

Read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” You may have read this story in a lesson in the unit. If you did, take some time to review the story. If you have not read it, read it now. As you read the story, take notes on the following points:

the circumstances of the narrator’s imprisonment
the condition of the narrator’s prison
the narrator’s reaction to his prison and torture
historical references or allusions that appear in the story

Answer 1

The narrator was imprisoned due to his heresy during the Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition was the Catholic’s attempt to eradicate all other religious beliefs, they used torture to accomplish this

The pit is symbolic of literal hell

The narrator is horrified at the ideas of the torture he could go through

Edgar Allen Poe uses a first person point of view puts the reader in the narrator’s mind and torment

He at first sees the candles as his saviors but learns differently as he’s locked in a dark damp room

The pendulum is symbolic of oncoming death as it gradually descends towards the narrator

He vividly describes the horror and agony the narrator goes through

His reaction is to look for hope even in his situation, seeing the candles as angels, but when the torture begins the candles are extinguished